Kannada Sahitya Sammelana: Love for language brings him from the US

Thousands travelled from far and wide to attend the sammelana in the city. But one member of the audience stood out -- Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi, an assistant professor of Humanities at the University of San Francisco, USA.

| TNN | Feb 6, 2011, 05:03 IST

BANGALORE: Thousands travelled from far and wide to attend the sammelana in the city. But one member of the audience stood out -- Prithvi Datta Chandra Shobhi, an assistant professor of Humanities at the University of San Francisco, USA.
She travelled half the way around the world not for the seminars, but primarily to purchase Kannada books at the event. "I am not very keen on the seminars. My major focus is on books. The major attractions are books published by North Karnataka-based publishers whose books are usually not available elsewhere," Prithvi said.

Though he was impressed by the sea of books, he was left a little disappointed as he was unable to find one particular book that he has been looking for in a long time. "I was looking for a particular book, which I failed to get. A Kannada translation of a Sanskrit book that talks about 12th century Sanskrit poets of Karnataka," he said.

According to Prithvi, Kannada is one of those few Indian languages that is yet to be included in US universities in a big way. "There are many universities that coach students in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi and other languages at the graduate level. But Kannada is taught only in Pennsylvania and Iowa varsities. Unlike Indian children, their NRI counterparts learn Kannada when they graduate and not in their schooling," he added.

NRI CONTRIBUTION

Prithvi, who has been residing in the US for the last 15 years, feels that Kannada writers like M R Dattatri and Guruprasad Kaginele have been making great contributions to diasporic writing in Kannada. They have been successfully capturing an outsider's view in the setting of a nation that is not their own.

"Unlike Indian English writers, Kannada writers do not undergo lessons in creative writing. To that extent their writing is more authentic and original. Besides, there's hardly any change from the drafts of Kannada books to the final publication. However, in English, publishers make a work of art fit into the format of a best seller. Kannada writers to that extent are still free birds," observed Prithvi.

KANNADA KALI

She upheld the pride of being a Kannadiga in the US, and has been successful in her endeavour. Jyothi Mahadev, a visitor at the Sammelana, was the first person to start taking weekend Kannada classes in 2003, at San Jose. "Teaching Kannada for Kannadiga children in the US was interesting. The task that I started off with has now been taken up by `Kannada Kali', a team formed by Karnataka-based parents in the US.

The team conducts classes for children once a week with help from volunteers. The problem with NRI kids is that they find it difficult to pronounce. Pronunciation of Vyanjana's was also not so easy for them. But after joining the classes, their mothers often came up to me to say that the kids' pronunciation has improved remarkably," Jyothi, who now resides in Manipal, told TOI.

All Comments ()+^ Back to Top

Characters Remaining: 3000

Continue without login

or

Login from existing account

FacebookGoogleEmail

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Refrain from posting comments that are obscene, defamatory or inflammatory, and do not indulge in personal attacks, name calling or inciting hatred against any community. Help us delete comments that do not follow these guidelines by marking them offensive. Let's work together to keep the conversation civil.